Tourism Led-Inflation: A case of Malaysia

Abstract

The importance of the tourism industry has prevailed among developed and even developing countries. It has been perceived to be an important contribution to economic growth. However, in the proliferation of studies on inflation, information on the extent to which tourism industry able to influence inflation, is still sparse. Therefore, this study embarks on investigating tourism as a potential factor towards inflation. Data on consumer price index and the number of tourist arrival from 1986 until 2014 are used in the analysis. This study adopts a quantitative approach employing the Autoregressive Distributed Lag (ARDL) approach. Several controlled variables such as money supply, economic growth, government expenditure, and interest rate are also included. The results suggest that the tourism industry plays an important role in determining inflation in both short-and long-runs. Therefore, governments should take proactive measures in ascertaining that any expansion of the tourism industry can avert inflation.